Desert Snow
by Ava Chanel
Summary: There was a strange boy in the library, and it was obvious he didn't quite belong. Future!BBRae. Prompt challenge.


**A/N:** _Inspired by a writing prompt for a scene that takes place in a library._

* * *

" _maybe it's not about the length of time you've known someone;  
maybe it's about instant recognition on an unconscious level.  
our souls know each other..."  
-S.E. Hall_

* * *

 **Desert Snow**

There was a strange boy in the library that day.

He'd walked in, soaked to the bone, unknowingly becoming the single most fascinating specimen in a room with a treasure trove of information and ancient relics. The thunder roared outside the windows of the aged building, lightning cracking the dark set skies where the rain continued to drizzle against the glass and concrete. The boy, who was wearing a red hoodie with two white stripes falling down the length of his sleeves from his wide set shoulders, took to fixing his windswept umbrella with little luck. His shaggy, layered, wheat coloured hair was matted to his forehead in dark blonde patches where the water had gotten to it from beneath his hood. With a magnetic attraction, she watched him shake it out, not unlike a dog might have shaken the water out of their fur.

Exasperated, he ran a hand through the blonde mess, pushing his bangs from his forehead, before throwing his useless umbrella into the trash can by the giant double doors.

Then, wearing a toothy grin, he strode towards the front desk with a new found purpose. His sweater, drenched, clung to his long, lean upper body. Raven watched him from across the room, and made a note of the way he casually leaned across the counter and made eyes at Maggie, the red haired librarian currently sitting at the front desk. There was something familiar about his cocky mannerisms, but Raven knew she'd never have forgotten such a face.

It was only then that she'd realized what she'd been doing. Suddenly self conscious of the way she'd been shamelessly ogling him, she pulled up the book she had been reading before he'd distracted her, and made sure it obscured enough of her face without blocking her line of sight. Pretending to read the blur of tiny font in front of her, she eavesdropped on his conversation instead, unable to help herself.

"So, I'm thinking you might be able to help me out," he told Maggie first in a casual drawl, not bothering to introduce himself or apologize for interrupting her work so abruptly.

His voice was young and boyish despite his contradicting appearance, and there was something about it that made Raven feel like she'd known it all her life. Nonetheless, she figured he must have been in his late twenties, after deciding to give him yet another once over from behind the safety of her novel. His unruly hair and his clothes made him appear like a high school kid, yet his features, although youthful, gave away his age. Sure, his nose was a dainty slope, his hair a layered mess, and his cheeks were dusted with light freckles, but no prepubescent boy had such an angular jaw line, a strong brow, or an athletic build like he did. There was also the matter of his hands, a man's hands, which she found her gaze oddly shifting towards.

It was a safe bet to say that the newcomer was well aware of his more than comely appearance, and would be taking full advantage of such powerful knowledge.

Still, Raven knew her co-worker, and young, stiff-as-a-board Maggie would be unimpressed with his upfront and flirtatious demeanor, she was certain of it.

"That would be my job, sir," the other woman replied curtly, but Raven didn't miss the way she nervously fidgeted with her glasses, or brushed at an unruly red curl that had escaped her bun.

Was he actually succeeding in making her uneasy?

If the boy was dissuaded at all by Maggie's cool brush off, he would not let it slow him down. "And here I thought all librarians were crazy old coots. Never expected to find a cutie like you hiding behind all these musty, ancient books," he said with a wink.

Raven noted that his eyes were a lush emerald green and, for some reason, a familiar emotion welled up inside of her but, for the life of her, she could not figure out what it was. The longer she watched him, the more heightened it became, and the more he seemed to be out of place, like he just didn't quite fit in. She assumed that perhaps he'd simply sought refuge from the sleeting downpour outside, and they just happened to be the closest building still open.

Maggie, on the other hand, turned a red as bright as her hair, freckles and all, very much taking Raven by complete surprise.

The dark haired girl fought the urge to roll her eyes at the scenario playing out before her. Young, good looking boys didn't come through their doors all too often, but the ones that did would usually prove to be there for reasons that had little to do with actual research and education. More often than not, they wanted to misbehave between the aisles with their young paramours, or flirt shamelessly with a shy bookkeeper in an effort to win a bet of a villainous nature. No matter what it was, they were never genuine about their intentions and that wasn't going to change just because this one happened to be smoother than the others.

"Ahem," Maggie cleared her throat shakily, "What can I help you find today, sir?"

She was trying to appear complacent, but the pleasantness in her new tone of voice was hard to miss. Yet another uncharacteristic change from the otherwise standoffish woman.

"I'm trying to locate a particular flower," he told her, leaning in closer so that his voice was barely any more than a whisper. Either he was honouring the quiet zone rule, or he was merely adding a dramatic flair to his upcoming pick up line.

Raven, interest also piqued, couldn't help but look up at the perplexing stranger all over again, as if she were seeing him for the first time. He didn't seem to notice, or care, for her otherworldly gawking. The particular emotion she couldn't comprehend from before lingered, and she tried to puzzle out exactly what it was about him that was making her feel in such a way. It was practically on the tip of her tongue, and it tormented her that no matter how hard she glared at him, she couldn't will it away or make any sense of it.

Maggie seemed to be surveying him too, with bated breath, probably enraptured by the three tones of green in his gaze. There was something about his eyes that conveyed a relaxed and warm atmosphere, making them easy to stare into without fear of any consequence.

"A flower?" Maggie queried in a small, feminine voice.

The boy nodded once. "Yeah. It's real pretty, has a nice scent, too. Problem is I can't remember its name. I'm sure if I see it I'll recognize it, though," he admitted, all the while never letting his gaze wander away from her freckled complexion.

Raven scoffed inwardly. It was obvious he was stringing Maggie along. There was probably a horrible pick up line waiting for her at the end of it, about how she was this mysterious flower all along, and would she go on a date with him because he'd be the luckiest guy in the world for it. It was so horribly corny, Raven could hardly believe that the reserved, indifferent librarian was actually falling for it. She could feel the rise of bile in the back of her throat as she thought on the horrors of such an awful, cheesy, 'romantic' notion.

"We've got many books on flowers...," Maggie answered him meekly.

Raven nearly banged her head on the table. The interaction was slowly becoming more and more difficult to endure.

After a moment of silence, her co-worker seemingly had gathered her professional bearings, shifted in her seat, and finally spoke a sentence with more substance than her last few had had; "But, you may want to narrow down your search if you want quicker results. Otherwise, you'll be staying here for a week looking through all the books we have on such a broad subject."

Raven could have sighed in relief; for once, Maggie's reaction had been true. The library had a plethora of books on flowers, and something told Raven that the strange boy would not have the patience to sift through them all.

"Well, that's where I figured you could help me?" He pleaded with a smile, desperately trying to appear innocent in his plight. He was starting to lose a bit of his magic, now that he knew how daunting this undertaking would be.

Maggie coughed softly, shifting her gaze away from the boy's intimidating stare to her computer screen. Her fingers, quick and efficient, went back to tapping on her keyboard with a new found fervor. The clicking sounds became the loudest noise again in the otherwise silent library.

"I'm really sorry, but I'm currently busy at the moment," the red haired woman informed him in a monotonous voice, officially losing interest in the boy and his predicament. She didn't even spare him a glance as she typed.

The corner of Raven's lip twitched into a somewhat cocky smirk. Whatever shenanigans the boy was up to were no doubt cut short thanks to Maggie's swift response. The look of despair on his features was a reassurance of this, and only served to fuel Raven's smugness on the matter.

"However," the librarian went on unexpectedly, "I have the utmost confidence that my associate here can help you locate what it is you're looking for."

 _What?_

Raven's eyes went as wide as saucers as Maggie spun her chair to face her aforementioned and _only_ associate on shift. The book she'd been 'reading' fell away to the desk with a heavy thud, and she could feel two sets of eyes scrutinizing her like she was a newly discovered mystery.

"Rachel's always had a fondness for this type of research. She also knows this library better than anyone else who has ever stepped foot in it," Maggie beamed at her with a sense of pride that Raven was apprehensive to disappoint.

"Rachel?" Her 'name' on his lips came off funny, unnatural even. Something about the way it sounded seemed wrong. He watched her with mild fascination, studying the lines of her face as if committing them to memory. If she could calculate with precision what it was he was feeling, it went something along the lines of surprise and curiosity. Then, she watched as his features contorted from wonder to a devilish mischievousness, the unsettling grin splitting his face.

"Yeah, I think _Rachel_ can help me out just fine," he said to Maggie in an edgy tone of voice, all the while staring at Raven like he would a ripe fruit ready for the picking.

When she remained rooted to the spot, he egged her on by extending an open palm in her direction. "Shall we, _Rachel_?" He called out to her in invitation, still completely enthralled with the fact that she'd be the one to aid him in his mission.

After some serious mental preparation and an inward groan, Raven finally found the nerve to stand up, albeit reluctantly, and made to exit the little information booth to where her new charge awaited her. She forced a small, reassuring smile at Maggie, pleading with her eyes to save her from the situation she had knowingly placed her in. The librarian was back to her work though, ignoring the two of them like they hadn't been anything more than flies on the wall.

Sighing deeply in agitation, Raven turned to lead the way towards the many aisles of book cases, her hands becoming tightly clenched fists at her sides. "This way," she told the boy through gritted teeth, uncomfortably resigning to her fate.

He followed behind her, like a looming presence that she couldn't _not_ feel, no matter how much she tried to shut him out.

"So, you've been working here long?" He asked her, trying to fill the painfully thick silence that had fallen among them as she led the way.

Raven shrugged before replying in a deadpan tone. "Long enough."

She never was one for small talk, anyone could have told him that. Besides, the sooner she was rid of him, the sooner she could go back to the safety of her book. People were not her thing, especially people like this bizarre boy.

To her surprise, he _laughed_. What exactly was it that he had found so amusing about her? The sound of it grated on her nerves, and she shuffled along quicker, trying to contain her irritation while simultaneously distancing herself from him. She took some pleasure out of knowing he had to jog a bit to catch up to her.

She then abruptly made a sharp turn into an aisle of isolated bookshelves, choosing to ignore his unsettling reactions. Not even five minutes with the kid and he was already getting on her last nerve. She turned to face him suddenly, causing him to stagger backwards at her unexpected nearness.

She took in a slow, meditative, deep breath before enlightening him. "Over here we have the botany books. These ones on this side are the books you need to be looking at. All the way from here," she indicated the right side of her, "to the back over there," she motioned behind her, at the end of the aisle. "Any further and you'll move onto agriculture and the like."

The plants and flowers section alone included two massive bookcase units, each with a series of several panels of shelves themselves, stacked high enough to make stretching uncomfortable. They were all chalk full of books in various lengths and sizes. The boy's eyes widened, clearly becoming anxious upon realizing his impossible goal.

"Woah, hang on there, you mean you aren't going to help me out? Isn't that like, against librarian code or something?" He pleaded, eyes darting about alarmingly at the sheer amount of text he would have to endure.

Raven stared blankly at him, folding her arms over her chest with mild disinterest. With a roll of her eyes, she said; "First off, I'm not a librarian. Just an assistant. Second of all, you can't just expect to locate a 'flower' when the only information you have is that it... _smells nice_ ," she quoted him, not hiding her distaste for his lack of an explanation.

He scratched the back of his head nervously, and the tick made her wonder why it seemed so ordinary and commonplace. "Alright then, miss crabby pants. You've made your point," he confessed, losing a bit of his cheery disposition.

Before Raven even had a chance to react to his rude name calling, he told her everything else he knew. "The flower's white. Pretty sure it's got five petals, and if you look closely, there are these little purple lines on the inside of them," the boy stated in a more serious inflection.

Raven quirked up an expressive eyebrow. "Corolla lobes," she corrected him candidly.

"Carol did what?"

If he hadn't looked so genuinely perplexed, she might have actually turned away and left him there out of sheer frustration.

With a deep intake of air, Raven clarified; "Corolla lobes. The purple lines are on the base of the corolla lobes of the flower."

"Uhm, yeah, sure, whatever." He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

"Anyways, you need to be more specific. For example, knowing what sort of environment the flower grows in will help narrow down the list of books to look through significantly. Also, it's growth pattern. Is it an ascending flower? Or does it branch? Perhaps it's caulescent. These are things you need to know if you want to save yourself the time of going through this entire section," Raven droned on, knowingly losing the boy halfway through her explanation by the way he clutched at his hair.

"Ugh," he replied, appearing defeated and staring at his own two feet. "I don't know any of that. It's a small flower. It's beautiful. It grows in a rough place, but it still blooms, it always perseveres."

Then, in a smaller voice, "She'd love it..."

There was something forlorn and pained about his expression in that moment. Longing, sadness, betrayal, the emotions were all achingly genuine, palpable even, in the small space that existed between them. Guilt crept in to replace annoyance as it dawned on her that this unusual boy was actually being sincere. As a result, Raven couldn't help but let her features soften in remorse.

After a moment of allowing him to wallow in his self depreciating state, Raven found her voice again, even though it was small and distant. "Rough environment, you said?" She turned her attention to the shelves then, not really wanting to look upon his pained features for fear that they would rip her delicate heart asunder. Her nervous fingers grazed the spines of the new and old books like an old lover would touch the delicate and supple skin of their muse.

"A place like that for a flower would be a climate that is either too cold or too hot," she thought aloud, her mind sifting through the numerous titles and authors before her. Her amethyst toned eyes spared each individual one a thoughtful glance before moving on to the next.

The boy remained silent throughout her search, choosing to watch her work, and not knowing quite how to help. So he stood by awkwardly, fidgeting with his hands, and Raven seemed to be perfectly comfortable with it that way.

She went on absent-mindedly; "There are two extremes; a desert, or the arctic. Unknown to many, there are actually quite a few plants, other than cacti and evergreens, that thrive in these environments. But you're looking for a flowering plant, and that narrows down the search."

"Wait," the boy interjected at long last, bringing Raven out of her train of thought.

She spared him a curious glance. He looked away self consciously, unable to hold her gaze.

"Rocks and sand. It grows among rocks and sand, not snow," he said, seemingly digging through his mind in search of a familiar image. The words came out rough, like he'd had a hard time recalling the easy facts. There was something haunting about his visage, and Raven found that it had aged him suddenly and significantly in her eyes.

"The desert, then? Although, most flowers in the arctic occur in the springtime when the snow begins to melt. Are you sure about its home being a desert?" She asked him, watching him with a wary expression.

He paused, lost in thought for a minute.

"...desert snow," he mumbled under his breath.

"Its name!" He shouted aloud, his expression changing into one of bewilderment, "Desert snow! That's what I've heard it called before!" The boy unexpectedly cried out, as if he'd managed to surprise even himself in that moment.

Somewhere in the distance, just beyond the lonely aisle of books they both stood in between, someone told him to hush. He blushed then, cheeks reddening as he was humbled by the gentle reminder that he was still in a library.

"Linanthus demissus...," Raven then whispered, recognizing the plant's other common name upon hearing him say it.

All the information seemed to finally fall into place, like perfect pieces of a puzzle. Everything he'd said made sense, and Raven recalled all the data she knew about the particular breed of flowers he had been referencing all along.

Then, ignoring the boy's incomprehensible expression at her latest discovery, she went back to examining the bookshelves with a newly found passion, knowing full well what she was looking for this time around. As a matter of fact, she'd seen the exact textbook she had in mind only a few days ago, after a young girl had checked it out for a school paper and recently returned it.

"What's a lanthis de misses?" He'd come up behind her now, close enough to be invading her personal space, and also intruding on her thoughts. If she hadn't been so preoccupied with her current task, she may have noticed and minded.

"Linanthus demissus," she repeated flippantly, correcting his mispronunciation as if it were simply second nature for her to do so.

Her eyes alighted to it then, the recognizable spine and all too familiar font style sticking out to her like a sore thumb would. With a small amount of struggle, Raven managed to pull out a heavy set, hard covered book from the middle shelf, titled: 'American Desert Plants & Flowers'. She wore a look of satisfaction as she ran her fingers down its simple cover, as if to be greeting an old friend she had not seen in quite some time. Only then did Raven choose to finally elaborate on her previous statement, "Otherwise known as desert snow."

Not waiting for a response from the boy, the empath was quick to flip open the book, scanning through the table of contents until she'd found what she was looking for. She turned the pages hastily, not paying attention to the fact that he was practically leaning over her shoulder now, close enough to touch and most certainly invading her comfort zone. Yet Raven was far too enraptured with how far she'd come in solving the mystery to reprimand his behaviour.

"Woah, how'd you even know that?" He wondered out loud, his voice breathy in her ear as his eyes followed the pages she flipped through.

"I read about it once in a novel. It's sort of what I enjoy doing, in case you haven't noticed. I wanted to know what the flowers looked like, so I researched them a while back. It's quite a pretty, delicate little thing and yet, it lives in such hostile conditions. Granted, it's an annual flower, but I was pretty impressed with it, and its descriptive name. I'm fairly certain you can only find it in the American deserts. I don't remember where exactly, but it's enough that I can figure the rest out from here," she explained hurriedly.

"Damn," he murmured, running a hand through his thick, blonde hair. "You always were a bookworm, Rae."

She froze.

It had been _years_ since she'd last heard anyone call her by that abhorred pet name, and just the way it smoothly rolled off his tongue was enough to leave her shaken and paralyzed by it. There were only ever a handful of people who'd given her the affectionate nickname in the first place, and she could easily recall the individual who had used and abused it the most. One whom, if she was being entirely honest, wasn't too much unlike the strange boy she'd taken up helping.

Suddenly, it was as if time had stopped moving altogether, and Raven became very much aware of the fact that they were the only two people in that small, cramped island of books. As it all came rushing back to her in one fell swoop, she couldn't help but take notice of his immediate nearness, while a cold feeling of dread left her temporarily immobile.

Raven _knew_ that voice. How could she not? She'd lived with it for a good chunk of her lifetime, after all. In her mind, she could almost hear her subconscious mocking her, as if she'd known it was him all along, from the minute he'd stepped in through those doors, looking dishevelled and wrong. She'd pegged him the instant she'd registered him, despite his more human appearance and lack of green skin. She'd watched him, scrutinized him, felt herself drawn to his every move, analyzed all his mannerisms because she'd discerned his identity. No wonder he'd seemed so unusual to her, like her brain just couldn't compute his very existence in a library, of all places.

This was why.

Of course he didn't belong in a library; _Beast Boy_ wouldn't have been caught dead reading an actual book for leisure. From his charmer attitude to his lazy smiles and bright eyes, she suddenly felt stupid for not having perceived it sooner. The only key difference between this variation of the changeling and the one she'd known as a teenager, the only way he'd had her fooled, was that this version of Garfield Logan was completely human to the naked eye. No green skin, no pointy ears, no fangs. He'd traded it in for freckles and shaggy, golden hair.

Beast Boy.

Short, lanky, dorky, sometimes socially awkward Beast Boy.

Beast Boy was in the library with her, standing beside her in close proximity while she helped him find a flower, no longer short or lanky by definition. She couldn't yet say as to his other traits.

Meanwhile, he'd recognized her almost instantaneously; the second Maggie had introduced her to him as Rachel, he'd known who she really was.

She couldn't help the feeling anymore, and now that she'd learned his true identity, she could finally put a label on it.

What it had been all along, as it swelled up within her, threatening to constrict and overwhelm her chest.

Joy.

She was happy, elated even, that she was at long last reunited with one of her oldest friends after years of little to no contact. Memories of a past life she'd nearly given up and forgotten were rushing back to her anew, and it was all she could do to contain her emotions. They flared up to life within her, reminding her that they'd always been inside of her, only dormant, since she wouldn't call upon them anymore out of fear for Starfire's prophecies. How long had it been? How long since she'd last even heard of the Teen Titans? All that was left as a testament to the group were the few books and biographies she often found herself tucking away, to be forgotten, much like her once dear friends had forgotten about her.

"Uh, Earth to Raven? Or is it Rachel now?" Beast Boy's soothing voice seemed to make time lurch forward again, but Raven remained paralyzed, unable to cope with the situation at hand, as well as the intensity of her feelings.

She wanted to embrace him tightly and not let go for quite some time. She wanted to tell him that it was so good to see him again, to ask how things had been for him and what he'd been up to all those years after they'd each gone their separate ways. She wanted to know about everything she'd missed in his life. But most of all, she wanted to pick up right where they'd left off all that time ago, to become friends again, because the truth was that she'd never, ever experienced such a gut wrenching loneliness in her life than when the Titans had disbanded for good.

Raven had probably never been happier to see Beast Boy, and it was all she could do not to let it slip that she'd missed him, all of them, so terribly that it made her heart ache with the discomfort of it. So, instead, when she finally managed to find her rather unsteady voice again, she said, "Why aren't you...green?"

Beast Boy rolled his eyes at her exasperatedly. "Way to dodge the question, by the way. As for the green thing, I found a doctor that concocted a magical serum that cured me and now I'm a totally, perfectly normal human again. No more super hero, animal changeling for me!" He grinned at her toothily, and she found herself almost missing the pointed fangs that would have protruded where his canines now were.

Raven's piercing stare bored into him, disbelief evident in her features. She would have never told him the courage it took to look him dead in the eyes and remain unscathed. As she scrutinized his raggedy, human appearance again, she couldn't help but observe the likeness to the green teen she'd once been roommates and teammates with. Perhaps now he was a little taller, a little leaner with newly formed muscle mass, and his features were more angular and less child like, but it was still the same old Beast Boy...minus the Beast, of course.

When he was no longer able to handle her eerie disposition, he raised his hands up in defense and said, "Alright, I'm totally joshing you, you caught me. So maybe I'm not exactly cured of the green machine, but I did get the next best thing! I managed to convince Cyborg to make me a hologram ring for my birthday a few years back. So, this is what I'd look like if I was, you know, still human. Not bad, huh? The ladies sure seem to love it. I get digits and dates like you wouldn't believe!"

He gave her a quick little twirl after indicating the thick, silver band around one of his index fingers on his right hand. If she paid enough attention, she could see the little blue lights that glowed off of it; a key staple of their robotic friend's technology.

Even though she knew she should have been happier for him, Raven simply stared at the floor, overcome with a numbing sense of abandonment. "Why are you here?" She asked him, trying to mask the helplessness in her voice.

Despite joy overruling all her other emotions for the time being, there still lingered a tinge of betrayal, and she found that it impaired her even in the tiniest of doses.

"Like I said," he reminded her, "I'm trying to find this flower...lion dimension or whatever. It's...important." Beast Boy leaned against a book case, watching her reproachfully, like he was afraid of what she was going to say or do next.

Then, with a raised eyebrow and an intrigued look, he added; "I had no idea you worked here, Raven. Although, I can't say I'm surprised. It's really good to see you...doing so well." He smiled meekly, but there was something about his statement that made her wonder if he, too, had half expected her to be on her way to living out Starfire's future.

 _It's really good to see you, too..._

"Why do you care so much about this flower?" She asked him, not wishing to remain on the previous subject matter for a moment longer. Raven stared at the offending page before her, pretending to focus on the images of a bush of white flowers blooming in the burnt earth, strikingly graceful against the harsh, desert limestone it called home.

When Beast Boy remained quiet for an unnatural sequence of time, she was forced to look back up at him, only to be confronted with the same dejected look he'd worn earlier. "It reminds me of someone," he told her in a low, gruff voice.

A comfortable silence settled between them then as she mulled over his recent disposition. Raven didn't need to ask him who that person was. The familiar, deepening gloom that had settled into his features told her everything she needed to know.

"She's getting married, you know."

Raven watched him with an apprehensive gaze, but remained mute. Beast Boy was still looking anywhere but at her, his eyes glazed over in a hazy memory that evidently did not include her. As if he were looking back on something private, and she was the one intruding this time around.

He scuffed his foot at the carpeted floor before deciding to fill her in; "Some blue collared, average Joe, too. Absolutely nothing special about him..."

"Does he make her happy?" Raven asked politely, knowing to tread carefully in such dangerous waters.

Beast Boy was fragile and, although the Terra debacle had somehow matured and strengthened him, it was also still the one sore spot that everyone who knew him was wary of. He never had truly healed, after all, even when he'd told all his friends that he'd be fine. Raven had known the lie, sensed the bitter, ugly emotion about him like a slow, creeping virus infecting his outgoing propensity at all times.

"I mean, I guess so. He's...a really nice guy. But I just don't like him for her. She's totally out of his league, dude. She can do way better."

 _Better, as in you._

"And you think that by giving her this...rare and lovely flower, you're going to just change her mind after all this time?" Raven's query was unmerciful, but her tone of voice conveyed the gentleness it needed for its delivery.

To her surprise, Beast Boy handled her question with a level of maturity she wouldn't have expected from the changeling years ago. He shook his head, golden waves of hair moving with him, and then confessed to the truth; "No, of course not...I only wanted to make sure that she had this particular flower at her wedding in some way. Either in the bouquet, or the decorations, maybe her hair even...It would look real pretty in her hair..." He drifted off dreamily.

There was a level of such raw honesty in his sentiment that Raven felt silly for ever assuming that Beast Boy would _not_ put someone else's happiness before his own. If she hadn't been feeling so jilted, it perhaps would have made her want to smile, the sweetness of his selfless trait.

"I bet it would," she assented.

"She used to believe that nothing so delicate could ever come out of such a dead place. I can't wait to prove her wrong, you know?" He recounted, wearing a smile that did not quite reach his eyes.

Raven stared at the flower on the page again, perplexed by its existence once more, and knowing that she'd never think of it in the same way. "Mojave desert. California. It blooms in the spring," she informed him after reading some of the text beneath the images in the book.

When their eyes met, she betrayed none of her feelings, even though she wanted to so desperately. "That's where you'll need to go."

"Right," he began, giving Raven a genuine smirk, "Thanks for your help, Rae. I really do appreciate it. To be completely honest, I never thought I'd actually find it, you know. But now that _you_ did it for me, it looks like I've actually gotta go through with this silly thing."

"Good luck, Garfield."

 _Please, don't forget about me. Don't just leave me here, alone._

He'd shoved his hands into his pockets then and gave her one last, energetic, trade mark grin before turning his back to her for good.

 _Wait!_

"Oh," she caught his attention as he paused in his step to look over his shoulder.

 _Maybe...don't go. Stay, just a little while longer, please..._

Biting her lower lip and staring longingly at his hands, she spoke in a gentler voice, "For the record, I prefer the green."

Raven clutched the book to her chest, unsure of what she'd find if she dared to look up at him, and terrified of what she might feel.

He let out a hearty chuckle that lit up his features in an ethereal glow, his expression conveying a secret that only the two of them shared. "Funny enough, so do I, Rae," he told her, jade like eyes bright and twinkling beneath the luminescent lighting of the library.

And then he was gone, taking the light away with him and leaving her to be swallowed by the darkness again.

* * *

"There was a strange boy in the library yesterday," Annalise told her from her settled in workstation.

It was bright and early in the morning with the crack of dawn only just colouring the sky in pink and purple hues, and Raven was just about to drop her canvas bag by her desk when her boss had spoken aloud.

"Strange?" she queried, looking at her table top in confusion. She brushed a stray, short lock of deep violet hair behind her ear as her features pinched into a nonplussed expression.

There, before her, lay a book she hadn't been reading, left on the surface of her normally cleared desk with a sticky note protruding from inside of one of its pages. She stared at it, almost offended by its unwelcome presence. She pursed her lips and wondered how it had gotten there to begin with.

As Raven examined the mysterious hard cover text, she heard her boss say, "Well, I mean, he was green. As in, his skin, his hair, everything about him was the color green. Maggie claims he's that young man from that disbanded Titans group, but I think he was just a crazy fan who dyed himself or something. Anywho, he had checked out a book a while ago and, surprise, surprise, it was overdue, and so he'd come in personally to pay the outstanding fees."

Entranced, Raven opened the book to the page the note was left in and read the first header she saw.

 **LINANTHUS DEMISSUS (DESERT SNOW)**

Beneath it were images of the plant, flourishing in a desert backdrop, the bright whites of the petals not unlike the colour of freshly fallen snow.

"He then asked me the strangest thing. He asked me if a Raven worked here, and if he could leave the book on her desk because she'll know what to do with it. You should have seen this young man when I said that in accordance to library policy, the book would be put back on the shelf, and that no one with the name 'Raven' was under my current employ. He then corrected himself and said it was for you, and that you could always put it away at the start of your shift," the older librarian babbled on.

But Raven was no longer listening to her. She was reading the note Beast Boy had left her, in his typical, messy handwriting on the yellow piece of paper he'd stuck onto the page.

 _Hey Rae,_

 _Just wanted to let you know I found the flowers. It wasn't easy; I burned out there like a crispy piece of bacon on Cy's grill. Do you know how many creatures live in a desert by the way? Lots, and not many are friendly. On the upside, I can add them to my repertoire (not that I really use my abilities all that much these days)._

 _She liked them, by the way. The flowers, not the creatures. She couldn't believe where they'd come from. When I saw them, I almost didn't want to take any of them, they were even prettier in person. I'm not sure if she wore them or not (shockingly, I was not invited to the wedding), but I'm just happy she took them in at all. Yeah, I'm a coward; I left the package on her doorstep and ran away. She probably thinks her husband got them for her..._

 _Anyways, I saved some from the trip and I remembered that you liked them too, so here they are. Sorry if they're dried out by now, they don't exactly last long outside of their home. Here's hoping they get to you in this book. I'll try leaving them on your desk. Maggie already said she'd help an ex Titan out._

 _P.S.; I checked out another book. Crazy right?_

 _P.P.S., So yeah, I got a library card! It's pretty neat that libraries rent out movies and videogames now._

 _P.P.P.S., this means you might be seeing a whole lot more of me. Hope you don't mind the company. We should grab a coffee (or tea) sometime, catch up. It's been a while._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Garfield Logan (a.k.a., Beast Man/Changeling/Tofu Lover)_

He'd been right; the desert snow flowers were dried out, it was true, but it didn't stop Raven from picking them up and admiring them for the first time in her life. She'd never even dreamt of going to a desert and, thus, figured all she'd ever see of them were pictures in a book. Yet, here they were, and they were even more magnificent in person, even with their petals somewhat crusted and damaged. She could still see the lines of purple that he'd talked about when he'd first come in to the library.

"Woah, someone mark the calendars. I do believe Rachel might actually be gracing us with her ever elusive smile."

It was Maggie that had snuck up behind her, inspecting what she had in her hands before briefly glancing at the note in the book left on her desk. "So he got you flowers all the way from the desert paired with a love letter, huh? That's a pretty romantic gesture if you ask me. Don't worry, Rachel; your secret admirer's identity is safe with me," she whispered, winking at the empath before heading towards her own designated work station, humming a strange tune.

Raven and Beast Boy were probably going to be the talk of their little group for days to come, but in the moment, the usually quiet, reserved young woman couldn't bring herself to care.

One of her dearest friends was somehow, by some miracle, back in her life just when she needed it most, and she wasn't going to complain about it anytime soon. Not even if she had to suffer through tofu meals and videogames for the rest of her life.

Instead, she ignored all the hustle and bustle about her and focused in on the dainty white flowers, the note, and the infamous page in the book that described the desert snow plant. One particular line had always stood out to her from the first time she'd read it, and it was why she had oddly admired and related to the plant so much.

 _Desert Linanthus, when not flowering, can be rather inconspicuous. It tends to fade and blend with its surroundings in which it grows, meaning it is otherwise unremarkable. Once a year, usually between the months of March and May, its white, five petal flowers bloom, making it perhaps one of the most outstanding decumbent, dicot plants that thrives in the Mojave desert..._

Remembering the way the strange but familiar boy had simply appeared in such an unusual fashion, Raven, with a small, secret smile, thought that maybe, she wasn't the only one not unlike the mysterious desert snow...

* * *

 **A/N:** _I understand that my timeline here is a bit vague on the details, so, let's just say this is in a point of the future where, for the most part, the old Teen Titans gang we know and love, have pretty much gone their separate ways. Robin became Nightwing, Cyborg joined the Justice League, etc. It's always been a head canon of mine that Beast Boy, after his one encounter with Terra post her 'death', resigned himself to simply just watching out for her from a distance._

 _The prompt was a random one I found on tumblr, simply asking to write out a scene in a library. Naturally, I couldn't help but think of Raven working in one, what with her love of books and knowledge. And then I thought about why on Earth Beast Boy would ever go into one, and thus, the idea was born. The flower inspiration for Desert Snow blatantly comes from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (where I first really heard of it), and, wanting to know what such a prettily named flower looked like, I did some mild research on it._

 _Lastly, Starfire's prediction is taken from the cartoon show where she travels to the future unknowingly, discovering that all the Titans have split up, and Raven becomes nearly catatonic as a result._

 _And there you have it. This one-shot is complete. As per usual, feedback is appreciated. Thanks for reading, and here's hoping it was enjoyable._


End file.
